It sucked. It needed something sweet, like caramel.
Fuck, even that made me think of Skye. The frozen caramel coffee she’d made at the café all those months ago taunted me. I’d let her have it then, but I’d thought about it often. I loved overly sweet drinks.
“Aria’s from the islands.” Coach said, wasting no time. “That’s where you’re heading. Did she take Brandt with her?”
Rafe’s dark eyes flicked to mine, and I shrugged, telling him it didn’t matter if we answered these questions or not.
Coach huffed a laugh and Rafe rolled his eyes. We didn’t need to usemind-speakto communicate, we just knew what the other was thinking sometimes.
“Why does that matter to you?” Rafe asked.
“I like her,” Coach deadpanned. When neither of us reacted, he sighed. “I saw what happened.”
“Yeah, we all did?” Rafe said slowly.
Some deeply buried part of me panicked slightly. Rafe had been a smartass all through Coach’s class, and I was always guilty by association. We hadn’t been in his class in nearly a decade, and he was even my colleague now, and yet somehow, I was afraid he was about to order us to go run laps.
Coach gave Rafe a flat look.
“Imean, I saw what happened. With the…” Coach did a motion that almost looked like jazz hands, and while I held in my laugh, Rafe did not.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Rafe snorted. “Why are you asking us where she is? You wanna come along?”
Coach sighed dramatically, then glanced around the room before speaking again, which silenced Rafe immediately.
“I know about her affinities.”
The three of us were moving through the shadows before I could even comprehend what he’d said.
I gagged when we landed in my office, and Rafe grabbed me by the back of my neck, practically slamming my head into my trash can.
Coach spun slightly before catching himself against the door, then straightened up to face us.
“What does that mean?” Rafe asked darkly, continuing the conversation as if he hadn’t just publicly whisked us away.
“I know what she can do. She put Landon down in class once, tripped him a few times. I swear she almost drowned Anton and just played it off like a water affinity.”
“Itisa water affinity,” I said slowly, and Coach shook his head.
“I know it’s not,” he said. “But whatever, I saw Brandt, too. Caught a streak of lightning and didn’t die.”
“I don’t understand,” Rafe said. “You want to…blackmail us?”
Coach laughed out loud, a real, deep belly laugh, and Rafe bristled.
“No,” Coach said. “I want to know how I can help. You’re all going to need it.”
“We’re good, thanks,” I said dryly, but Coach was already shaking his head.
“Rafe, your father is about to name himself acting headmaster.”
Rafe’s brown skin paled slightly. “What?”
“Yeah, your boyfriend missed the meeting,” Coach said.
In a burst of anger that was very unlike me, I hurled my coffee cup at him. He dodged the cup easily, and it splattered against my door window.
Coach only shook his head. “You’re still predictable.”
